Making Canada Home – One Step At A Time

My name is Max. I am very happy when I knew I would have opportunities to interview with many people or I could heard many stories from other immigrants, because I am an immigrant too and I also wondering how about other immigrants’ lives in Canada. I can understand how brave are they and how difficult to live in another country. Especially, they need to learn another language and need to work harder than local people a lot. Sometimes despite they really want to get a good position in the new society, but maybe the result is not good as they think. Anyway, we should focus on the experiences they have, then we can learn many things from the stories.

I had the interview with Daisy on Skype. Daisy is my friend’s friend. She is a permanent resident right now; she can apply to become a citizen very soon. I felt very happy for her. She was from Guangzhou China. Guangzhou is one of the very modern cities in China. She came to Canada when she was 18 years old. She was a normal student as many international students studying in universities in Canada. She studied English in a college in Vancouver, then after that, she past the English exam. She heard from other students, apply UBC would easier than other universities. Thus she also succeeded in entering the UBC psychology faculty. When she was a student in university, she moved apartment more than 11 times. She hated that very much. Those reasons for moving she said, sometimes she thought the roommates in the same house were too noisy, sometimes because the landlord needed to sell the house, thus she moved many times.

After she graduated, she worked for a company, she worked similar a social worker and it was a full time job. She needed to do a lot paper work and held a lot parties or programs for old people. After one year, she applied to become a permanent resident. She quitted the first job, then she found a local people company, she worked part time there and she thought that it was not to get a full time position in some companies, because Vancouver is a big city, many people but sometimes maybe there are no many jobs for every people. She already lived in Vancouver a long time and she likes the city. Therefore she decided she did not want to move again, she needed to buy a condo. Her parents were very supportive about her idea, and then they helped her to pay for 10% for the condo, then Daisy would work hard and pay for this condo in 25 years. In Vancouver, buy house or condo is very expensive, the condo is 400,000 dollars. She felt a little bit strong stress for that, but she was very happy, finally, she did not need to move again. The latest news about her is that she is studying public health for her master degree in SFU.

The things she really wanted to tell other people is about when her work Visa was wrong and she thought she needed to return to China in two weeks, but she called the government about her situation, the government said she needed to apply for the Visa again, thus she did not need to return China, she felt lucky about this. She worked similar a social worker, she also did not need to wait a long time to get the permanent resident card. She only waited it for five months. In her opinion, maybe because there were not many people work as social workers to apply for the permanent residents. She knew some of friends are accountants, and then they usually waited a long time for the permanent resident card. After she became a permanent resident, she is so happy about that and she can save much money for her master degree study. She loves Vancouver a lot and she loves Canada. She feels Canada is her second hometown, she feels very comfortable to live here.

I know that she has a Canadian boyfriend, studying in SFU for master degree, has a condo, a car. Her life is very stable in Canada. I feel her story is a very good example for the international students who want to become permanent residents here and the new immigrants, because immigrants can know that the Canadian government is very nice to them. They could get a lot of the help from many different organizations and once they can get use to live in Canada their lives will be very good, because Canada is a big melting pot!

Max is a newcomer living in Winnipeg. She is a Communications Volunteer for the Immigrant Centre.

“The Facilitator was great teaching the information and treat everyone with respect”.

– Client attending Job Search Workshop – August 14, 2015

Job Search Workshop Attendee

About Immigrant Centre

From the time a client first arrives at The Immigrant Centre's front desk, they are made to feel right at home. Services are provided in a professional, warm, and welcoming atmosphere. By triaging clients immediately an arrival, their needs are addressed in a consistent, smooth, and timely manner. Intake ensure a "Roadmap of Services" tailored to assist and guide newcomers in their settlement process.